The present disclosure generally relates to methods and apparatus for evanescently coupling, and more particularly, relates to the stripping of an optical fiber to facilitate evanescent coupling.
Conventional photonic integrated circuits typically utilize both a silicon waveguide and a polymer waveguide which are evanescently coupled on the circuit. An optical fiber is then coupled to the polymer waveguide for providing optical signals to or from the photonic circuit. The use of the polymer waveguide on the photonic chip may lead to coupling losses which may deteriorate the optical signal. For example, optical attenuation in the polymer waveguide may lead to a loss of about 0.5 dB and coupling between the polymer waveguide and the optical fiber may result in an additional 1 dB of loss. Various additional methods of coupling the fiber to the circuit may decrease the signal loss, but generally will increase the fabrication complexity and cost of the fiber and/or the circuit, or decrease the bandwidth or channels. Additionally, coupling fibers together may lead to signal loss. Accordingly, a new manner of transmitting optical signals between optical fibers and/or photonic circuits is desirable.